Marcus

Vinicius

“He (Vinicius) has a real bad habit of taking dribbles when he has wide-open shots, and then all of sudden a guy is there guarding him,” Scott said. “He’s turning good shots into bad shots, and he was late on everything like calling out switches on whom to guard. Even in transition, he was running but not seeing the ball.” Morris Peterson will start at shooting guard, sliding Peja Stojakovic to the 3 with Julian Wright backing him up.

Vinicius was acquired in a minor trade on Thursday, and won’t ever have fantasy value.

The deal is still pending league approval and it sounds like the Rockets will also get Adam Haluska from the Hornets and a conditional second-round pick, while the Memphis Grizzlies will receive the rights to Marcus Vinicius to make the deal work financially. The big news here is that Bonzi appears to be an obvious choice to replace struggling shooting guard Morris Peterson in New Orleans. It’s not guaranteed to happen, but we’re recommending that Wells be scooped up in most instances. Jackson is slated to back up starting point guard Rafer Alston in Houston.

Vinicius is a second-year project, Lishchuk was the Rockets’ second-round draft pick in 2004 and Badiane was also a second-round pick, in 2003. None of these guys will have fantasy value.

It’s fairly shocking that Vinicius, who at least partially tore an ACL in January, has recently been able to play.

Though he has no fantasy value, Vinicius is just the latest in losses for New Orleans/Oklahoma City.

He’s expected to rejoin the Hornets on Jan. 22, but has no fantasy value.